This invention relates to a coin detection and validation means and method, and, more particularly, to a coin validation means for use in distinguishing between coins deposited in a coin-operated vending system, which means includes a variably controllable coin analysis circuit, and to a method of operation of such coin validation means.
It will be appreciated that, throughout this application, the term "coin" may be employed to mean any coin (whether valid or counterfeit), token, slug, washer, or other metallic object or item, and especially any metallic object or item which could be utilized by an individual in an attempt to operate a coin-operated device or system. A "valid coin" is considered to be an authentic coin, token, or the like, and especially an authentic coin of a monetary system or systems in which or with which a coin-operated device or system is intended to operate and of a denomination which such coin-operated device or system is intended selectively to receive and to treat as an item of value.
Over the years, a number of coin validation means, designed in accordance with various coin validation techniques for use in or with various coin handling systems, have been constructed and advantageously employed in many vending applications. For many years, most of such coin validation means were mechanical in nature and were designed to validate coins on the basis of the coins' physical shapes or sizes. In more recent years, coin validation means of electromechanical and electronic natures have been designed to replace or complement the purely mechanical coin validation means, some of which electromechanical and electronic coin validation means operate to validate coins on the basis of the coins' physical shapes and sizes, and others of which operate to validate coins based upon other characteristics of the coins.
Included among such coin validation means have been devices such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,870,137; 3,918,563; 3,918,564; 3,918,565; 3,952,851; 3,966,034; and 4,151,904, all of which devices employ inductors of known characteristics as part of an oscillator circuit. In such devices, an inductor is positioned to be affected by the presence of a coin in the vicinity thereof and to cause a change to occur in the oscillator output. Such changes have been used as a basis for detecting and distinguishing between different coins. Generally, such devices operate when a coin is present in the vicinity of the inductor to produce a measured or derived value representative of such coin, and thereafter operate in various ways to compare such measured or derived value against different predetermined values in order to determine whether or not such coin is a valid coin. For the most part, the greater the number of different predetermined values against which the measured or derived value is compared, the more circuitry, especially replicative circuitry, that has been required by coin validation means of these types. To some extent, however, it has been found possible to reduce the amount of replicative circuitry that would otherwise be required through the use of a programmable memory such as is called for by U.S. Pat. No. 3,918,565, which patent teaches that a coin validation means may be constructed to include a programmable memory to store the plurality of different predetermined values and a comparison means to compare the measured or derived value representative of the coin undergoing examination against the plurality of predetermined values stored in the programmable memory in order to determine whether or not the coin is a valid coin.
In recent years, it has become recognized, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,857 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,460,003, that ringing circuits may be advantageously employed as coin detection and validation means in coin-operated systems. U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,857, which is assigned to a subsidiary of Applicant's assignee, teaches that it is possible, through utilization of a ringing circuit, to distinguish between various coins since the presence of different coins in the field of the ringing circuit at the time such circuit is shocked or pulsed effect different damped wave output signals. The damped wave output signals produced have certain distinctive characteristics of magnitude, frequency, and envelope dependent upon whether or not a coin or other metallic object is in the field of the ringing circuit and, if so, upon certain characteristics of the particular coin in such field and such coin's position within the field.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention is an advancement beyond the coin detection and validation means of U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,857, and, in a broader sense, such invention is also an advancement beyond the coin detection and validation means of the various other patents identified hereinbefore. Such invention is designed to operate in such a fashion that an analysis means, such as a ringing circuit, forming a part thereof is variably controllably conditioned prior to receiving a coin analysis initiation signal, so that the output signal thereafter produced by such analysis means in response to the analysis initiation signal will, if a valid coin of the denomination being checked is present in the coin analysis field of the analysis means to interact therewith or to undergo examination thereby in some fashion at such time, have a "standard" feature or characteristic that can be easily and readily detected and confirmed. Although such "standard" feature or characteristic could be associated with any of the magnitude, frequency, or envelope of the output signal, it has been found convenient, in one preferred embodiment of the invention whose analysis means includes a ringing circuit whose output signal is a damped wave produced when such circuit is shocked or pulsed, to utilize as a "standard" a pre-established threshhold number of cycles whose amplitudes exceed a pre-established value. Regardless of the particular coin denomination being checked, the pre-established amplitude value and the pre-established threshhold number of cycles whose amplitudes exceed such pre-established value remain the same. As a consequence thereof, such preferred embodiment does not require a large amount of replicative circuitry, even when a number of different coin denominations are to be checked, and also does not require a comparison means that must compare a measured or derived value associated with a coin undergoing examination against a plurality of predetermined coin validation values stored in a programmable memory.
The subject invention includes a validation control means, a memory means operatively connected to such validation control means to permit the retrieval therefrom of predetermined data stored therein, which data is associated with the different denominations of valid coins, analysis means operable under control of the validation control means, and a detector means operatively connected to the analysis means to permit the monitoring of output signals produced thereby, wnich detector means functions to provide to the validation control means information regarding the output signals produced by the analysis means. Preferably, the validation control means includes a programmed microprocessor, and the predetermined data stored in the memory means includes predetermined pairs of data entries, each of which pairs of data entries is associated with a respective coin denomination so that two coin acceptability sub-tests may be performed.
With a preferred embodiment of the invention, wherein the analysis means includes a ringing means, the validation control means operates, during a coin validation operation and at appropriate times during such operation, to perform two coin acceptability sub-tests for each coin denomination to be checked, each of which sub-tests is effected by individually retrieving from the memory means a data entry associated with the respective coin denomination being checked and by providing to the ringing means a conditioning signal corresponding to such data entry, which conditioning signal establishes certain respective parameters relative to the ringing means. When the appropriate parameters for any particular data entry retrieved from the memory means have been established, the ringing means is then shocked or pulsed under control of the validation control means, and information regarding the particular damped wave output signal produced by the ringing means under such conditions is provided to the validation control means by the detector means. If, for such data entry, the information provided by the detector means indicates that the requisite "standard" features or characteristics for such sub-test have been detected, the coin present in the field of the ringing means is considered to have satisfied such sub-test. On the other hand, if the information provided by the detector means does not indicate that the requisite "standard" features or characteristics have been detected, the coin present in the field of the ringing means is considered to have failed such sub-test. If both sub-tests are satisfied, the coin is considered a valid coin; if either sub-test is failed, the coin is considered an invalid or unacceptable coin.
The present invention is thus designed to utilize an analysis means for distinguishing between valid and unacceptable coins and for distinguishing between valid coins of different denominations, and does so without the use of a large amount of replicative circuitry and without any necessity of making comparisons between a measured or derived value of the coin being tested and a plurality of coin validation values stored in a programmable memory. Optionally, such invention can be readily utilized in conjunction with other coin validation and verification means of various types and designs, whether such means be mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic in nature, and it has been found that such invention is particularly advantageous when employed in conjunction with and to complement various coin sizing means which operate to validate and verify coins based upon such coins' physical shapes and/or sizes.
In light of the foregoing comments, it will be recognized that a principal object of the present invention is to provide an improved means and method for validating coins or other metallic objects.
Another object of the invention is to teach the construction and use of a coin validation means which produces, for all coin denominations to be checked, an output that has a standard feature or characteristic, regardless of which coin denomination is then being checked, if the coin undergoing examination is a valid coin of such coin denomination being checked.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a coin validation means that can be used to distinguish between a number of different coin denominations without the use of a large amount of replicative circuitry.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a coin validation means that can be used to distinguish between a number of different coin denominations without the necessity of making comparisons between a measured or derived value of the coin being tested and a plurality of coin validation values stored in a programmable memory.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an electronic coin validation means that can be readily utilized in conjunction with other coin verification means.
Another object is to provide a coin validation means utilizing a microprocessor to control the operation of a variably controllable coin analysis circuit.